Another Onigiri Tale
by The Can-Can group
Summary: Its 60 years after a devastating war that left the planet mostly in ruins. One family's secret has been discovered. Separated, they have to find each other with the help of a girl... DISCONTINUED!
1. Prologue

Disclaimie:

Moo…

Another Onigiri Tale

Plot by: The Can-Can group

Prologue

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Kyoko leaned against the brick wall, her breath coming out in short gasps as she tried to regain her breath from having to run so much. Footsteps run past her, telling her that she has given her chasers the slip, for the time being at least.

She went to the end of the alley, looking around the corner to see if it was safe enough to leave her new found hiding spot. However, just as she was about to leave the alley between the two buildings, someone grabbed her mouth and pulled her back into the shadows. "Shh," the person whispered into her ears as soon as the person stopped pulling her backwards. "I'm going to let you go, please, whatever you do, don't go screaming and allow us to get caught in a clichéd way." She hesitantly nodded, whatever it took to get in a breath of air.

"Sorry about that," the person (which she realized was a man just a few years older then herself) apologized as she took in deep breaths. "I didn't want you to go out there and get caught. There are so few of us left."

Once she was done breathing in rigidly and had gone down to a regular breathing pattern, she asked, "Us?"

"Rebels, I guess the correct term is what we would be called," the man answered. "There are only handfuls that don't like the way things are going. Too many conspiracies by the government, people mysteriously dying, or vanishing, woman forced to give birth to unnatural babies, you know, the works. Or, at least, I'm assuming that is why you were running away from those guys before."

She nodded. She explained to him about how her family sold her for money to the Facility, where, once she was old enough, was told that she was next to give birth to an experiment. She told the man about how there's screaming and then silence during these births. No woman had ever survived the birthing of one of the experiments and she really didn't want to be the next one to be dumped into the incinerator. "So, I just escaped using my skills from when I was still living in the city."

The man said nothing as he began to look around. "Are you trustworthy?" He finally asked as he walked to the end of the alley, where a wall stood, making it a dead end.

"I guess."

The man smiled as he tapped on a brick with his forefinger. He stepped to the side as the ground that he was just standing over began to slide behind the wall, revealing a set of stairs. "This leads to the Tokyo Division of Rebels."

She followed him in awe as he began to descend the slime-covered stairs. Once her foot touched semi-flat ground, the sound of stone and gears grinding announce the fact that they aren't going to be followed and that the passage was safe. Not only that, artificial lights flickered on, so that they wouldn't accidentally bump into things. "My name's Honda Katsuya, by the way." The man, Katsuya suddenly said, nearly scaring her.

"Mine is Kyoko," she replied, blinking. "Where are we going?"

"This is basically our hide out, any rebels are housed here and are given jobs that will help out with things."

Kyoko frowned. "What happens if someone weren't one of you and betrayed you?"

Katsuya paused in his walking, as if trying to figure out a way to word his thoughts. After a moment of not moving, Katsuya continued walking forward. "For one thing, we have contracts where if you reveal us, you're basically dead meat, that and we kinda… watch people for a month or two before we even reveal our presence."

It took a moment for what the light browned haired man to sink in. "So that means…"

She could tell that he was blushing as he nodded. "Yep, we've been kind of watching you, ever since you were sold." Katsuya could've sworn he heard the late teen call him a perv.

They finally saw light at the end of the damp tunnel. After emerging from it, Kyoko couldn't believe her eyes, it was a small underground village. Tents and encampments all over the place, children running all over the place, men and women carrying weapons and wearing discrete uniforms heading towards another tunnel, and smells of cooking arising from the center. "This way," Katsuya commanded.

He led Kyoko through the small village. People greeted him as he walked passed by, children ran up to him and gave him foods, saying that it was from their mothers, all in all, it seemed like he was a very popular person amongst the people living there. "Popular, aren't we?" Kyoko said with much cynicism. Kastuya just smiled nervously in response.

They arrived at a tent in the heart of the "city" of tents. Katsuya entered it and since he didn't tell her to not follow, Kyoko entered after him. It seemed to be central command, maps and layouts of the city above them were placed on the cloth walls, an old, and yet still working computer in a corner, there was even a large, fold out table in the center.

"Found another one, eh Kastuya?" A man laughed from his position at the computer. "You're like one of those people who gave all their live savings to people in third world countries, not realizing that its just a scam." Katsuya just blushed as he stood there, taking in the ridicule. However, Kyoko didn't like it, at all…

"What the heck are you all talking about? I'm not some dumb charity case! I heard about this place from someone and he just happened to be the first person that I could get a hold of!"

The man who was laughing held his hands up in defense. "Whoa there missy, we just like to tease him a bit. Besides, the only ones who are allowed to tell anyone about us is the boss man himself or the Council."

"That means…"

"Yep, Honda here, is the boss man," The man laughed. "A wimpy one though." This made the said person blush even more, it was like he was trying to seem a little tougher then he actually was. Kyoko wasn't sure on whether to laugh with the man or just leave. One laugh did escape her, however.

Finally, Katsuya overcame his small blushing problem and took his position as leader. "Putting that aside," he said, slightly raising his voice. "Miss Kyoko here has been inside the Facility, the only building that we don't have all the schematics for. She probably could tell us things that we might need to know."

Kyoko shook her head. "I was in the Holding for most of the time. Although," she paused. "I did grab a disk that has maps for the place. I needed to find an easy way out of there, it doesn't have everything on it though, just the areas I needed most."

"That's good enough," The laughing man replied as he had Kyoko hand the diskette over to him. "I'll check it out later, first I need to talk to Mr. Boss Man about something." Kyoko knew a dismissal when she heard one, as did Katsuya. "Let me show her to a tent before we start." He left before the laughing man could even reply.

Katsuya walked, mumbling about insubordinate subordinates and something about a certain someone's head rolling far, far away. "Wait for me!" Kyoko cried out as she almost lost sight of him. That seemed to make him stop. Katsuya waited for her to catch up before continuing on his trek. "Sorry about that, Ginta tends to be…"

"Its okay," Kyoko chirped. "If he hadn't done that, I wouldn't have known that you are a such a gentleman instead of a dirty man looking for good times."

Katsuya sighed. "You're not the first to think that…" Kyoko began to laugh and to him, it was the greatest thing he ever heard.

Katsuya stopped outside of a rather small tent. "This is yours, so you don't need to worry about sharing with someone. This is actually an extra one that's been vacant for awhile now." Kyoko entered the tent. It was roomier then it looked on the outside. On one side a futon was rolled up, gathering dust, aside from that, there was very little. Kyoko figured that as soon as Katsuya left, she'd air out the futon.

"If you need water, its right down this row to your right," Katsuya proceeded to say. "We'll have to also see about getting you some food and clothes."

Kyoko waved her hand in a dismissing sort of way. "Don't worry about food, I took some before I left." To prove what she said, she pulled out some bread and dried food from her pocket. "And I'll just talk to some of the other women and see if they have any. I still need to learn my way around here and that'll be the best way to do it."

Katsuya realized that the eighteen year old, was, indeed, very independent and had her own views about life, something he very much admired about a person. "Okay then, I'll let you get settled in."

The orange haired teen nodded silently as she turned her attention onto him. "Thanks," she whispered quietly. "If it weren't for you, I'd probably be screaming and wishing that I was dead by now." Her eyes shinned brightly as she looked at him with admiration and thankfulness.

He blushed heavily. He quickly turned around and left the tent. Kyoko blinked as he popped his head back in a few seconds later, some blush left over shinning on his face. "I'll see you later."

…………………………………

Kyoko woke up to the artificial light flickering on through out the entire compound. She stared at the ceiling of the tent, remembering that she had been staying in the underground rebel camp for the past week. "He lied," she muttered as she slowly got out of the futon. He promised that he would see her later, but he never stopped by since she had seen him last. She wasn't allowed near the HQ club tent (short for "Horny Queers Club" named out of spite) since she's now just a civilian-esque person. That frustrated her, she wanted to met up with Katsuya and talk with him some more.

"I'm just being selfish," she growled out to herself. It was true. She was being selfish. Kyoko blamed it on the fact that she hasn't gotten used to the artificial lights and because of this, she hasn't been getting to sleep properly. In the back of her mind, she knew that he was a man dedicated to his cause. She just wish that she could find something to be dedicated to, that way she wouldn't be so bored all the time.

Kyoko grabbed a shirt from the pile of clothes that she got from the other women that were kind enough to give her some and put it on. The clean clothes pile was getting smaller than the dirt pile, which spelled a laundry day for her soon. She sighed. It was way too early for that kind of stuff.

Her slim fingers combed through her long hair, trying to brush the long mass as best as she could. She figured that she would try to find someone to cut it all off one of those days, since it was rather redundant to keep it long, it'll just get in the way of things.

The pathways between the tents were just starting to show signs of life as people emerged, getting ready for another day in the camp underneath the government's nose. Kyoko headed to the small well a few yards away from her tent, trying to get there before the crowds and other people whom she had taken a certain "disliking" to.

If only she were so lucky.

There they were, the women who had nothing better to do than gossip about other people's lives. The first time she went to the well at the same time that they were there, she nearly punched them all for what they were saying about her (and in front of her, no less!). Fortunately, she regained control, ignored them, and continued on her way.

"Did you hear?" One of the women whispered to the others. "The new one is a…" Kyoko ignored them. She really didn't want to know if the newbie was a whore, a businessperson, or even the President of what used to be the USA. She just wanted to fill her canteen up so that she wouldn't have to make another trip to the well just to get some water.

"I also heard that Katsuya had been bedding her!" Another gossiping woman whispered in a conspired tone.

For some reason, just hearing that load of bull, made Kyoko very upset and pissed off. She turned angrily towards the women, glaring with all her might, which in turn made the women defensive. "What is it that you want?" One of the women snootily asked, eyes narrowed dangerously.

The unsaid challenge, just exactly what Kyoko was waiting for. Her eyes landed on an old pipe lying on the ground. Slowly, she went over to it and picked it up, whilst the women watched her slow movements. Memories of when she was the leader of a gang, before she was in the Facility and when she was still in the city, played in her mind, how she relished in the feeling. Her muscles twitched in anticipation, ready for the ensuing action. Her eyes began to become wild and yet sharp, just like it used to be. She lightly tapped the rusted pipe in her hand, watching the women's reaction. "What is it do you think that I want?"

The women backed away slowly in fear. A crowd began to form, blocking their escape. One of the women was brave enough to step forward. "You don't scare me! You're just some whore from above, trying to steal Katsuya. We can never forgive you for that!"

Kyoko's eyes narrowed even further, if there's one thing she really didn't like, its people who think of another person as a possession. Slowly, her lips curved into a smirk. She walked over to a vendor, smiled and apologized (promising to pay the owner back), and grabbed a watermelon. She placed to giant fruit on a table and brought her pipe down on it, causing the juices and flesh to fly everywhere. She leaned against the pipe and smiled, making her seem like some sadist. The "hens" stared, eyes widened, mouths hanging open. "All I say this once and only once!" She shouted, still smiling a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "I don't wanna hear you ever talk about Katsuya like that again, ever! If you are bored and need something to do, don't go around gossiping, just go sew or do something productive and if I have to go through this again, there will be hell to pay, go it?"

Nervously, the women nodded their heads, not wanting to face her wrath and they left the area in a quick pace.

The rest of the crowd was silent for a moment, staring at the closet violent ex-gang leader. She sighed and smiled (a true one this time). "Sorry about that folks!" She said nervously, but trying hard to not show it. "Sorry you had to see that." She pulled out a few coins, handed them to the vendor, and left, going through a break in the crowd. The murmuring of the people pricked at the back of her neck and made her feel hot and nervous. She really hated being judged for her momentary lapse of when her old self shows through.

"Miss Kyoko!"

The said person turned around, seeing Katsuya trying to catch up to her. Just great, Kyoko thought. Now she would have to avoid him, she didn't want to know what he thought of her now that he has seen her old-self. Pretending to not have heard him, she continued on, hoping to but in some distance between herself and Katsuya.

Too bad, he's a very determined person. He just wouldn't give up in chasing her. When she went into the women's lavatories, he waited for her to emerge and when half-hour passed and realized that she found a way to get out, he searched the area until he found her and continued to go after her.

All in all, she did have to give credit to the man.

Kyoko came upon the two feet deep canal, the main water source for the camp, and forced herself to slow down and take in a breath to regain some oxygen into her lungs, least she runs out or something.

Katsuya's hand shot out of now where and grabbed onto her arm. Turning the teen around, he asked, in a hurt tone, "Why were you running away from me?"

The adrenaline left her system quickly and due to her exhaustion, she had a hard time from holding back her tears. "I didn't want you to see what I once was."

"Was?"

Kyoko's body shock as she tried to regain control. "The reason why I was sold wasn't just because we were poor, it was also because I was a delinquent and they couldn't control me anymore." A cynical smile spread across her face as a small tear let loose. "Of course, the Facility beat that out of me real fast."

Warm arms enveloped her. At first she wanted to pull away or do something so that she wouldn't feel uncomfortable anymore, but he was stronger than he looks and kept on holding onto her, allowing her to realize that she didn't have to act tough. "I don't know what to say," Katsuya whispered in her ear. "I can't say that I know how you feel, since I'm not you." He smiled. "The only thing that I can offer is my arms and a place that will protect you."

She scoffed. "But you haven't visited me in a week! I hate not being able to nothing. I need to do something to help out, or I'll go nuts."

"I'm sorry. I was really busy. If it's any consolation, I thought about you most of the time."

Kyoko didn't reply as she leaned in further to the embrace. She wondered when was the last time she was hugged? Maybe it was before she met those girls who allowed her to join in their gang, or was it before she started drinking and smoking, or perhaps it was when she was a baby (since she couldn't even remember that's most probable). It doesn't matter, she'll just think of this as her first.

……………………………………………

A year passed.

There were a few more incidents between her and the women, but in the end, she was the one to win. Katsuya made it point to visit at least once a week, unless he had to go topside for a while on various missions. It was at those times when she realized that she felt like a wife, waiting for her husband to come home safe and sound. It made her feel sick and like she wanted to puke. She never figured herself for one of those types.

She looked at the clock sitting on her bookcase. It was time to get going; least she becomes late for her first day. After months of searching around, she finally found something where her skills could be useful as a combat training instructor. When she was in the gang, Kyoko had learned to use various types of weaponry and how to fight efficiently (or as much as you can get in street brawls). It took her eight months of training and classes for her to be able to sign up for this position and she was confident that she would get it.

Checking to see if everything in her tent was in order, she left.

She had been long since used to the artificial lights, so her eyes adjusted smoothly, and the musty smell that had permeated the underground camp due to the lack of quality air. People quietly greeted her as she walked along the rows, heading to one of the larger tents. Everyone talked softly in the camp, mostly out of fear that too much noise will give away their position to those who live on the topside. Not that Kyoko minded, she loves peace and quiet and took her time relishing in it.

She arrived at the tent a few minutes early. There was another person, working out and practicing for the exam. She was slightly nervous about the exam. There were two parts to it; the first was the written portion that was about common sense and the like. The final portion was a mock class where the examiners had to pretend that they didn't have a clue about weapons and the examinees were the teachers, teaching about how to use weaponry. They had to come up with their own lesson plans, something that took Kyoko over a week to figure out.

Just thinking about it made her even more nervous. Her pulse was starting to rise as the minutes ticked by and the sweat was starting to kick in. The part of the exam that scared her most was the written portion. When she was in school, she'd be so nervous because of a test that she'd pass out or threw up. That was one of the many reasons why she had dropped out of school, because of the tests.

Kyoko sat down in one of the chairs stationed around a fold-down table. Study guide in hand, she began to study whilst other people there to take the test entered the tent.

About half and hour passed. Slightly less nervous about the test, Kyoko stood up to stretch out her muscles. There were a few more people in the tent, about ten, most of which she recognized from the classes that she had to take. That was perhaps the only comfort, knowing that they have about the same amount of knowledge as she does.

A woman stepped through the flap, folders in hand. "Okay," She called out, gathering everyone's attention. "The written portion is about to start. I need everyone to take a seat at the table."

There was a light scuffle of feet as everyone took a seat at the table. Papers and pencils were passed out while the silence fell upon them as they started the test.

Kyoko tapped the end of her pencil against her mouth thoughtfully as she stared at a question, willing the answer to show itself to her. When none came, she just went with her gut and continued with the test. An hour past, which seemed to have stretched out for an eternity. Thankful that she got the test done, she put her pencil down and allowed the woman to collect the paper up. Silently, she waited for everyone else to finish up.

Another fifteen minutes went by and the last person to finish the written part turned the booklet containing the questions and the paper with his answers on it.

"Go to the tent next door," the woman instructed as she put the papers into a large folder so that they could be looked at later.

Kyoko followed the others to the tent next door. They were stopped by one of the examiners, who told them to wait outside the tent and that they are going to be called in one at a time for the second part. Bored, she sat down, leaning against a crate and waited for almost two hours, making conversation with the others every once in awhile. When it was finally her turn to go in, she stood up and went inside the tent. There were six people there in total. Not only that, but Katsuya was there and he seemed just as surprised to see her, as she was to see him.

One of the others coughed as he took out her folder and began to scan it. "It says here that you are eighteen, is this correct?" Kyoko nodded, the nervousness starting to kick up again.

The man sighed. "I'm sorry, but we can't accept someone as young as you for the position." He looked at her distastefully. It was obvious that he didn't like her, or maybe it was just the fact that perhaps, he doesn't like young people getting jobs that "adults" should be having.

She scowled in confusion. If they didn't want her for the job, why the hell did they allow her to take the classes in the first place? "Why not?" She asked, her anger rising. "With the meager amount of people here, you really can't be picky about something such as age. Shouldn't this be about my skill and not my age?"

The man's eyes narrowed. "I'd suggest that you calm down. Getting worked up won't change the fact that you aren't old enough."

"My ass!" Kyoko yelled. This is all beyond belief.

A woman stood up, causing her chair to screech back. "I will not tolerate this at all!" Kyoko clenched her hands. "Not only are you not of age, there have been reports that you have been in several fights all ready and that you had dropped out of school so that you could be a delinquent!" The woman forced herself to calm down, taking in deep breaths. Slowly, she sat back down.

"But-!" Kyoko wanted to know how they knew about that particular time of her youth.

"Mrs. Sugisaki," Katsuya was the one to speak up that time, his soothing voice, calming everyone down. "I must implore that allow her to have the take the test so that we can see if she's qualified."

The woman glared at him. "And you," She pointed an accusatory finger at Katsuya. "You know her. We can't allow someone who knows or is related to anyone on the panel to hold a job. It's too much of a risk. I can't hire her based on your opinion."

Katsuya frowned. "The population of the camp is small, only about two hundred people. How can I not have met her?"

"You two are seen in the company of each other all the time. She'd be a risk."

Kyoko's fingernails dug into her palms, almost breaking the skin. "What type of risk would I be? The only thing that I would be doing is teaching. How the heck is that a risk?"

The man from before slapped a closed fist onto the table. "Enough! The council has spoken. You are to not have this job. Please leave."

Trying her hardest to not get too upset in front of them, Kyoko left in a blink of an eye. Behind her, they argued for a few minutes about what had just transpired and called the next person in. It wasn't fair, Kyoko thought as she slowed down to a slow walk. Her bangs covered her eyes, blood trickled out of the small cuts from her palms, not that she cared, and she began to quiver. Ignoring questioning glances, she kept on walking until she got to her "secret hide out" that she had found. All it was was a dark corner in the recess of the underground area, right behind someone's tent. Sitting down, she leaned her forehead to her knees and cried.

Hours later, after she had fallen asleep, Katsuya found her. He was truly sorry about what had happened. He never thought that the council would discriminate against age, or at least they hadn't when he began leading the recon group. He was the same age as Kyoko when that happened, so why are they so reluctant to allow her to have the job?

"Hey," He whispered softly to the sleeping teen. Gently, he prodded her awake.

Moaning softly, she opened her eyes. They were still red and puffy from her tears, but they had the haziness from just being awoken. "'S time is it?" She asked, rubbing her eyes.

"Around three," He replied. "May I sit down?"

The girl didn't say anything, so he took that as a "yes." He sat down next to her, leaning against the cool bricks with a leg extended while the other one was pulled up to him. "If I had known," He said, softly. "That they would've done that, then I would've warned you against taking that job. Of course, I had no clue that you would do that job, but still…"

"Stop," She whispered. "It's not your fault. It's mine for thinking that I could just get a job here. I was wrong. However, so were they. With good help so limited here, they shouldn't be going against me just because I'm eighteen. From what I have heard, they have all the power here."

He nodded in agreement. The system that they made was supposed to be something similar to checks and balances; however, the council somehow began to overrule everything until they had all the power. "They are the ones who decide who gets jobs, like the one that you were applying for. Except," He smiled. He must've gotten an idea, Kyoko thought as she watched him. "That they can't tell me who is on my team."

Her eyes widened. "Are you…?"

He nodded, smiling. "We've tried to get into the Facility many a times, however, the security's too good there, even for us. I would like to offer you the chance to be our 'security hacker'."

When she was still in high school, Kyoko had hacked into her school's security system in order to cause a fire alarm so that she could get out of there while everyone was in a panic. She was caught and severely punished, despite her efforts. There had also been times when she was in the gang when she had to bypass the security system to stores so that the others in the gang could get in to take what they wanted. Finally, her was her chance to use her skills. All it took was one word…

"Yes."

And she was in.

………………………………………………

Today was the day. The day that they were, after months of preparing, were going to finally going to invade the Facility. Kyoko followed the Katsuya and the rest of the team up the stone steps, none of them talking, mentally preparing for the task ahead. The reached the spot where the mechanism to open the passage was at. Ginta, the man that's very laid back, gave her a look. Nodding, she pried open one of the stones, revealing a screen with four images of the streets above. "The coast is clear," she whispered.

Ginta nodded and stepped on one of the stones, pushing it down further. Gears and stones grinded at the top of the steps and the passage was opened, allowing fresh air to hit their faces. Looking once more at the screen, Kyoko nodded and everyone went up the steps.

Everyone drew his or her weapons, poised, and ready incase of an attack. Silently, they made their way to the looming building in the center of the city, using the alleys and dark areas as a way to get there. Kyoko swallowed. It has been a long time since she has been to the Facility, however there are times when what she had gone through gave her many nightmares in the dead of the night. The type of nightmares that makes you wake up in an instant, in a cold sweat, with tears rolling down your face.

The building stood in front of them, once they had gotten there without any hitch, unchanged since the last time. She pulled the back bag off of her back and placed it next to the security panel next to the door. Kyoko took out a small hand-held computer and proceeded to hook it up to the panel. The stylus pointed and probed on the small computer and after a few minutes of her holding her breath and licking her lips to keep them moist, she smiled happily and nodded to her teammates. "All clear. You have an hour to get to the information that we need and get out of there. Right now, I'm trying to send a loop through their cameras, but you still need to be careful."

The others nodded. Ginta was the first to enter through the door, after making sure that his headset was on and could transmit and receive. The rest followed him. Katsuya was the last to go through. "I'll be back," He whispered.

"Make sure that you do."

With a slight smile and a blush, he entered into the dark abyss of the halls of the building.

Kyoko, after getting out of her stupor, went back to work on the loop and after a few moments, it was threaded through. She even made it so that she could use the cameras to keep an eye on her team. Every so often, she would check in on the team, using the headsets, to make sure that everything is going okay. Aside from that, there was nothing else that she could do, except wait and hope that everything goes all right.

Cars past by, birds called out into the night, lights turned off, and the moon shinned brightly. After being underground for a while, Kyoko had learned, quickly, that the world above was a precious thing. It's too bad that it's all ruined by wars, famine, and everything else that ruins the peace and quiet. There were even areas that were once great forests and cities that got caught up in battles and wars and had been reduced down to deserts and apocalyptic waste lands. It saddens her. Maybe it's a good thing that she's down there all the time, that way she wouldn't have to face it all and live without knowing.

Gunfire burst out, interrupting the quiet of the night.

Quickly, she pulled on the headset and checked her computer. "What the hell is going on?" She cried out as she went through the cameras. She couldn't see a thing though. Someone must've realized that there was a loop and blacked out all the cameras.

"… Under fire… Can't… Too many…" The transmission crackled into her radio. Unfortunately, she couldn't make out what was happening, there was too much noise from the guns. Kyoko went through the different frequencies, hoping to get a clear channel. That didn't do much help, though; she still couldn't get a clear answer.

Kyoko began to panic. She tried every hacking skill that she had in order to get her feed back, but to no avail. No one was answering her back, making her fear the worst. "No," She muttered. "Please, don't be dead, Katsuya."

The door beside her banged open. She hid herself instinctually, going into the darkness. Four of her teammates came out, looking worse for the wear. Slowly, she left her hiding spot and greeted her comrades. "Where's Katsuya?" Kyoko asked, making sure that they were all right.

One of them shook his head. They didn't know where he was at; everyone lost communication with each other.

Before the emotions of possibly losing her only friend, Kyoko clenched her jaw to the point that her teeth were hurting from all of the pressure. There must be something that she could do, anything! She rattled her brain for ideas, but nothing came up. Her feed on the cameras that she hacked into was blocked and nothing was coming in on the audio.

Someone grabbed onto her arm, pulling her along, away from the building. She tried to resist, trying to get back to the building. "But-!"

"We need to get going. Honda would want you to get back to safety and not worry."

How could she not worry, Kyoko wanted to ask. Katsuya was there to consol her on a few occasions and even got her a job. How could she not worry about the one person who was there for her since the beginning? A tear fell and then another. That was it, only two tears, one for herself and her desperation, and one for Katsuya.

Twenty minutes later, she was sitting in her tent, staring listlessly at nothing with all emotions devoid from her face. They said that if he doesn't arrive by the next night, they'll assume that he's been captured and will find another leader for their small group. Kyoko didn't want to give up so easily, she had gotten as far as the stairs before someone caught her and brought her to her tent.

Blinking at the unshed tears, Kyoko laid down on her futon, trying to get to sleep.

She was somewhere between sleep and wakefulness when someone entered her tent. Her eyes snapped open and she leaned up, getting ready to fight her intruder.

"I'm sorry," Katsuya whispered, seeing her red eyes in the darkness. "I'm so sorry." He fell to his knees and was about to fall down to his stomach if it weren't for Kyoko, who had, by that point, gotten up to steady him. Blood washed onto her hands. Her eyes caught the dark stain originating from his side. "Katsuya!"

"They killed him," He whispered as a sob broke through. "They killed Ginta!"

"We need to get you some help."

Katsuya looked down at the spot where he was wounded as if he just noticed that it was there for the first time. "Oh. I'll heal, but Ginta-" He broke out into another wave of sobs.

"At least let me dress it!" Kyoko forced him to lie down on her futon. Carefully, she unbuttoned his vest and shirt, assessing the damage. The bullet just grazed his side, taking a chunk with it, but not so much that it would cause too much excessive damage. Gritting her teeth, Kyoko grabbed the water basin lying in the corner of her tent and one of her extra shirts. Tearing off a sleeve, she dipped it in the water and wiped away the drying blood. Once the darkening liquid was wiped away, she went on to ripping the shirt into long pieces. Making him lean up she wound the stripes around his torso and tied the ends off.

Before she could get up, arms encased her to her spot and his head leaned against her shoulder. "I'm sorry," His voice lifted into her ears. "I made you worry too, didn't I?"

A tear left the side of her eyes, but she didn't say anything. His body began to shake and quiver, again. Repeatedly, he whispered, "I'm sorry" over and over again, to the point that she couldn't stand it anymore. Her arms, of their own accord, lifted and wrapped around him, taking care of the wound. "It's okay." She began to rock him like a mother would with her child. "It's okay."

Neither one said anything for the longest while. They sat there, on top of the futon, in the dark tent, in the underground camp, comforting the other to the best of their abilities. In her mind, Kyoko knew that night was the night that changed everything between the two of them.

"I'm sorry," Katsuya whispered, once again.

"Will you stop?" She all but yelled at him. "Of course I'm going to worry. I care for you, how can I not? And if you apologize one more time, then I'll get pissed," She said dangerously, seeing his mouth open again.

As the two of them stared at each other, one still unsure if what she said was true and the other sure that if he opened his mouth again, she would hurt him, something clicked. They leaned in closer and closer, allowing the outside forces to take control and made contact. That night was the night she realized that she loved him with all her heart.

………………………………………………………………

Nine months later, Tohru came into the world, crying and screaming as she took in her first breath. Kyoko leaned back against the pillows, exhausted and yet, happy that there was another for her to love. After her newborn daughter was washed in warm water, she was placed in her mother's awaiting arms, sleeping silently.

"Can I come in now?" Katsuya's voice sounded from the other side of the flap. He must've been very worried, Kyoko thought as one of the nurses pulled the flap back to allow the man in. Katsuya rushed to her side, looking slightly worried at her own health and the baby's.

"It's a girl," She said excitedly to him, showing her daughter to her husband. Her voice's sore, Katsuya noted, figuring that it was from all her screaming and cursing like a sailor during the delivery. "Are we still naming her Tohru?"

Her eyes narrowed towards him. "Yes." Their first argument was over what their baby's name was going to be. If it was going to be a guy, he wanted it to be Kurosuke and if it was going to be a girl, he wanted it to be Megumi. However, she didn't see eye to eye with him about that one. She wanted her child to be Tohru, whether if it was a boy or a girl. When he talked about what if the baby was a girl, she said that having a guy's name would be "cool," "cute," and "a whole hell of a lot better than any other girl's name." He decided to concede to her will.

The nurses and the doctor left Katsuya's tent once they made sure that everything is all right and cleaned up the mess that was made during the birthing. He was grateful that Kyoko had decided to move to his tent a month before. His tent is closer to the med tent and a little bit roomier than hers.

Kyoko was grateful that she wasn't as big as she used to be moments before. After the first few months, Katsuya didn't allow her to go on any more missions. She was stuck in the Horny Queers Club tent (she was still sore about not being able to see Katsuya because of them when she first arrived), looking over mission files and such like. When it was getting closer to her due date, he told her that she wasn't allowed to leave the tent, which hardly stopped her; he had come to figure out. Somewhere along those long, nine months, they had gotten married, bonded together in "Holy Macaroni," as Kyoko had come to term it.

He gazed down Kyoko and smiled. She was finally sleeping, her arms holding Tohru protectively against her. Leaning down, he carefully, took Tohru out of her arms. The little girl fussed for a moment and then calmed down as he cradled her softly in his arms. "Hi, Tohru," He whispered softly, hoping to not wake Kyoko. "I'm your dad. I hope that you'll be safe down here and I'll try everything I can in order to make sure that you are kept safe." She blindly snuggled into the giant warmth holding her and breathed in and out softly.

He smiled.

Three years past by in the blink of an eye.

Tohru grew up into a miniature Katsuya, polite beyond belief. Kyoko thought it was funny seeing her girl following Katsuya around and trying to act like him, where as Katsuya didn't know what to think about it.

They turned out to be a small and quaint family, at least during the day. Kyoko had once said that "by day, I'm just your average Suzie homemaker, however, by night, I'm the one who haunts the doorsteps of evil corporations and research centers." Tohru asked what a research center and corporations (with some difficulty) was. Kyoko replied that they were evil monsters that ruin people's lives by messing around with their brains. Tohru didn't understand what any of that meant and thusly nodded and smiled as if she did understand.

However, what Kyoko said was true. During the day, she would watch over Tohru and help around the camp. During the night, she would go on recon missions with Katsuya. As much as she loved her little daughter, she also loved going on the recon missions and didn't want to give up on that. Katsuya argued a few times over that. He thought it would be better to have her stay home during the night so that way, incase anything happens, at least one of them would be there instead of one of the other camp women who have their own families to worry about. Yes, it was best that she stayed home instead of going.

That's why, he didn't tell her about the mission that night. It's going to be a dangerous one and he didn't want her there to distract him. It would be better if she were at home where he would know she was safe and sound. Even the rest of the team agreed with him on that one. Little did Kyoko know, she's the team mascot and they all saw her as a sister.

Katsuya waited for her to fall asleep before leaving. As he left something inside of him panged at having just deceived her, even if it was for her own safety, he had to force himself to not think about it. He met up with the other guys and left.

Two hours later, Kyoko woke up with her mouth very dry and a feeling of foreboding. "Katsuya?" She called out into the darkness. When no one answered, aside from Tohru waking up to see who just called out, Kyoko went back to the futon to feel around for her husband. Discomforted when she didn't find him, Kyoko began to think of possible things that could have happen to him. The first being that this was all a dream, but with Tohru suddenly sitting next to her and leaning against her, she nixed that one. The second that he was abducted by aliens and is now being probed by them, screaming in pain as the probe enters Katsuya's skull. The last one was that he went on a mission without telling her in hopes of protecting her and Tohru. The other two choices disappeared quickly and all her attention landed on that one. "That bastard." Kyoko muttered.

Tohru blinked and Kyoko realized her mistake when the little girl opened her mouth. "What's a 'bastard'?" She asked, still blinking.

Kyoko nearly gagged on her spit. "Nothing," She hurriedly said. "Just don't ever repeat that word again, got it?"

Tohru nodded earnestly, she did whatever she could to make sure that her parents are happy and did what ever that they told her to do.

"Where's daddy at?"

"I don't know," Kyoko replied, looking at the flap to the tent as if half-expecting Katsuya to enter the area. When he does arrive, there will be much blood shedding.

Suddenly, the flap was pulled back. A glare etched onto her head, however, the smile on her lips ebbed some of the ferociousness of the glare away. However, it fell away when one of the team entered instead of Katsuya, all bruised and battered with blood leaking out of some areas. "Where-?"

Something, just something in his demeanor told her what happened. "I'm sorry," He whispered sincerely, trying to keep the tears in.

Kyoko just sat there as her world shattered around her. Her eyes wide and frozen as the teammate left the tent quietly, knowing that she would need some alone time. Tohru watched as tears fells out of the sides of her mother's eyes, one after another, wetting the sides of her face.

"Mommy, where's daddy?" Tohru asked, wondering why her dad wasn't there to help console her mom.

Suddenly, the dam broke and Kyoko let out a wail with only her child to comfort her.

……………………………………………………

Tohru woke up with a start. The tears fell gently from the side of her eyes. It was just a dream, she told herself as she leaned up and looked at a picture of her now dead mother. Just a dream about the stories of how her parents met. "Morning mother," She greeted, smiling at the photo ID picture of her mother that serves as a photograph. Tohru is the only one left of the Honda family. Her mother had died about a month back, she died the same way her father did, during one of the missions she did on occasion.

Her mother didn't want to do the recon, saying if anything were to happen to her Tohru would be all alone with no one to look out for her. However, Tohru knew that she had to go, the camp needed her to help protect everyone, and she was the only one who could understand the codes and stuff to the security systems. Her mother would go at least once a week and would come home smiling and relieved at surviving another mission. One night, and everything seemed normal that day, her mother never arrived and was said to have died in an explosion.

Her two friends, Hana and Uo comforted her while she cried for a day. After that day, she put up a happy front for her friends. If it weren't for her psychic friend and the thug from the topside world, she would've never known that she wasn't alone.

Someone knocked on one of the poles of her mother's old tent (they moved back about a year after the passing of Katsuya, about eleven years earlier). Smiling she got up from the futon, throw some clothes on, and called out, "Coming!"

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew that the tears weren't just for her mother and father, they were also for another family, one that she hasn't even met, one family that has a cursed secret, the same family, whose fate is about to be entwined with hers.

Nevertheless, for now, she'll celebrate her fifteenth birthday with her friends.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Authoress's Notie:

Just to let you all know, this prologue-ish thingie can be taken as a one-shot, if you so choose. I hope that I characterized everyone correctly… (This is the longest single chapter, Devil's Game aside, that I have ever written in my life, I'm not too sure if the rest of the chapters are going to be that long, would be nice if I could do that though).

Other Comments:

Can this one say "Opps?" I'm sorry readers of my other fics, this one wouldn't just leave me the heck alone, no too mention I've been trying out different muses to see which one I like the best and the current one is just some old fat guy with a beer gut, living in his mother's trailer. Sad, isn't it?

I've been trying to work on the others, however, most of the time I just don't have to inspiration to write them or I don't know how I should continue (ie, I'm working on the last chapter for DTRDs and I've never came to the end of something on my own accord so I'm a bit apprehensive about it) I do swear that I'm trying real hard on them, even if it doesn't seem like it, with my lack of updating and all…

In other news, here's my shameless plug time:

First off, go read some of my other fics (not DTRDs, that one is THE crappiest thing I have ever written, despite it being my first and people actually read and review it (I don't get why people read it…)).

Next, I'm up on Deviant art and I even have a fan pic for Fruits Basket called "Plotting with a God" so go check that out.

Lastly, I'm up on Livejournal so if you want to know just how much I'm on the internet, go read that (ignore the more depressing entries, I have a few days were I'm just out of it…)

One last thing, don't ask about pairings, for the most part, I'm completely canon and I'm part of the Kyo/ Tohru faction, though I'm a HUGE fan of Hatsu, so expect that. Just don't bug me about that, okay? I'm not even sure what couplings there are going to be…

Questions, comments, just want to yell at me for something like your love life (or therefore, lack of), just click on the purple button (try to not get that confused with the purple pill) and go…

The Can-Can group


	2. Foundation

Disclaimie:

Moo…

Another Onigiri Tale

Chapter 1: Foundation

Plot by: The Can-Can group

A/N: My favorite line in this chapter is "Well, probe this!" I think that's a hilarious line for some reason…

ooooooooooooooo

Hatsuharu thrust out his right arm to the guard. The guard only scanned the tattoo of the insignia of the building, paying little attention the peeling edges of the fake tattoo. It was a long day for the guard, his wife had just left him the night before, leaving three sniveling little brats and a huge debt and right now, he could careless about anything, aside from the trip to the tavern after work. "You may pass," the guard said, waving a hand to allow Haru in, thinking that he was one of the many scientists that work there.

Haru scratched at the wig resting on top of his head as he looked down the hallways, trying to determine where to go from there. The person he got the rumor from only said which building one of his relatives was in, but not which floor. Haru hoped that this wasn't another wild goose chase and that he had failed again. He was also worried that he got the cities mixed up and managed to get himself (in his usual way) lost. Finally, he decided to go to the cafeteria and get info from someone in there in high hopes that it's the right building he's standing in.

His faux leather boots made a tapping noise as he walked along the pristine white floors and his fake lab coat flapped open a little as he walked along the hallways. Hatsuharu didn't like being in such a place, being so close to enemy and all. People were giving him weird looks, mostly at the fact that they had never seen him before, and the fact that the wig didn't look natural on him, but no one asked any questions, there are other weirdoes in the building, like the crazy scientist that stayed in his office all the time, so it wasn't all that uncommon.

Finally, he arrived in the cafeteria, having gotten directions from one of the other workers, claiming that he had just started there that day. A sea of people greeted him as soon as he set foot into the large room. Conversations floated to his ears, some about certain experiments, others about their own lives like "Johnny just got an A on a test" or "Suzie's going to take after me." Haru's contact covered eyes scanned the room, searching for something, anything that could help him.

They landed on a particular badge, lying carelessly next to the owner's arm. The badge had the picture of the employee on it and next to it three circles encasing a star, showing the man's rank of the highest order. From what Hatsuharu remembered, that badge could allow him access to almost any door. That was the ticket; Haru thought as a small, almost none existent grin fell onto his face.

He walked up to the table and with the barest amount of motion, he grabbed the piece of plastic a pocketed it, all in the span of one second. Next on the list, was to find out the info of where his relative was.

Haru spotted a woman with another one of the cards. Walking up to the woman, he explained that he had just been promoted and didn't know where the test subject was. The woman gave him a suspicious looking glare and took some time to assure that what he said was true. Eventually, she gave in. "He's on the forty sixth floor, the only door there." Haru thanked her and left the area.

He spent five minutes looking for the elevator and lucky for him, it was empty of anyone when the doors opened with a "ding." The contraption groaned underneath his weight, but settled down after he pressed the button for the correct floor and began to pull him up. "The floor you have chosen is a level four, class one area," a metallic voice erupted from a speaker, just as the lift came to a stop at the appropriate floor. "Please enter your number."

Haru took out the rectangular piece of plastic and pressed the corresponding numbers on the keypad just above the speaker.

"Number accepted," the voice returned. "Approach subject with caution." With the ominous warning, the doors opened up with another "ding," allowing him to get off.

Just as the woman said, there was only one door at the other end of the hallway, with no windows aligning the dark corridor. Haru pressed forward, heading to the door at the end. He slid the card along the panel next to the door, which unlocked the door and allowed him to enter the room.

Hatsuharu never expected the kick that was aimed at his head from a straight jacketed, orange haired, teen.

"Take that you bastard!" The teen shouted. "You think you can just probe me whenever the hell you want to? Well, probe this!" Kyo backed up a little and made another running leap with his legs ready for impact. Haru blocked the attack with his arms and sent the other teen flying.

"Did you finally learn how to fight?" Kyo taunted, not seeing that he was attacking a relative because of the lack of light.

"Kyo…"

The said teen scoffed. "So, you finally learned my real name? Am I finally being upgraded from 'test subject SK-1743' to having my own damn name?"

"Kyo…"

Kyo glared at Haru and gave a suspicious look. "What are you doing up here so early anyway?"

"Was that necessary?" Hatsuharu asked, eyebrow rose as the over aggressive teen blinked once he finally recognized the voice. The rumor was true after all, Haru thought happily (without actually showing that he was on his face) as Kyo stood there in shock. That's one down and twelve more to go. There's that other rumor he has to check out, but first, they need to get out of there.

"Haru?"

"What?"

Kyo's eyes narrowed. "What the hell took you so long?"

Haru clenched his hands. He forgot, in all the excitement of actually finding one of the family, about Kyo's hot temper. "We need to get out of here," Haru replied, trying to change the subject so that they won't get into an argument over such a pointless matter.

"How do we do that?"

Haru's eyes landed on the only window on that floor. It's a small one, hardly big enough to fit a mouse through and most likely used for ventilation since, judging by the stuffy air, there's no air conditioning. That, and they probably used Kyo's fear of being locked up for an eternity in order to mentally torture him. One thing's wrong with that, Kyo's hot temper and stubbornness won't allow him to be tortured like that.

"We can't fit through that!" Kyo shouted. Haru winced, he wished that his distant cousin wouldn't shout so, they could be bugged, and someone could be listening in on their conversations.

"Of course not, even I'm not that stupid," His eyebrows lowered at the memory of his childhood. "We're going out the front door."

"That's even worst!" Kyo shouted. "Besides, we can't just waltz right outta here. Not to mention, I'm not the most inconspicuous person here."

Haru ignored Kyo as he unbuttoned his white lab coat, presenting the supplies that he used to get in there. "Have you not noticed the brown hair?"

Kyo blinked as he calmed down and realized that Haru, indeed, did look different then the last time he saw him. "How'd they not noticed all that stuff?" Haru's lab coat looked bulky when he came in, but Kyo thought that maybe Haru gained weight or more muscles or something, he never thought that maybe they were supplies and a few artillery weapons that his red eyes saw as Haru pulled back the sides of the coat.

Haru shrugged as he took out a wig from one of the pockets. "Security's really crappy here." He took out some other supplies from hidden pockets of the lab coat and his pants. Haru then spent the next few minutes making Kyo look as average as humanly possible in hopes that no one would recognize him, not even his own family. Too bad that there isn't away to tone down his personality, Hatsuharu thought as he put on the final touches.

"Now, if I take off the straight jacket, you're not going to attack me, are you?" Haru asked with his hands poised over one of the buckles and straps.

"No, I won't attack! Now just get this damned jacket off of me, you damn punk!"

Haru did what he was "asked" of and undid the straps until the jacket fell away. He never expected to see Kyo's bloodied shirt and several cuts from a seemingly primitive weapon all over his torso. He could feel some of his "Black" side begging to be unleashed so that he could hurt those that hurt one of the Souma's. He quickly suppressed the anger, knowing that he couldn't allow his cover to be blown. Luckily, most of the lacerations were almost or all ready healed.

He grabbed an extra t-shirt from one of the many pockets and handed another lab coat over to the now dark brown haired Kyo. After Kyo changed shirts and put on the coat, Haru handed him a gun to which he said that it's "for emergencies only, not for revenge" to which Kyo scoffed.

Haru ducked his head out into the hallway, checking to see if there was anyone walking down the hallway. He found no one and motioned Kyo to follow him. The two walked down the windowless corridor, both feeling apprehensive at having the mission only half done. There's still getting outside left to be done, but hopefully, they won't be discovered and captured.

The elevator groaned underneath their weight as it carried the both of them to the first floor. Neither one said a word, for fear of jinxing their luck so far. Haru watched Kyo out of the corner of his eye. The teen, who's only a year older then himself seemed anxious to get out of the building, though, he seemed to be holding back, as if to not let his hopes up.

Finally, the elevator jerked to a stop and opened the metallic doors. The two stepped off and the lift gave a sigh of relief of being rid of the weight.

The two headed over to the door, which leads to the outside world, the place where they want to be. However, just as they were about to touch the door handles, two guards stopped them. "Arms, please," The guards asked.

Haru pulled back the sleeve of the lab coat with confidence; they're almost home free now. Just a few more seconds…

"Hey!" With that, Hatsuharu remember that he forgot to put a tattoo on Kyo. Just as he was about to open his mouth in instructions, several things happened. The first being the guards' mouths gaping open. The second being the alarms suddenly going off while another metallic voice shouted "intruder alert" and "escaped subject SK-1743." The third being surrounded by other guards and several scientists, all looking agitated that this had interrupted their work.

Sweat started to form at the back of Haru's neck as a part in the circle that surrounded them opened, allowing the Director to enter the circle with them. Haru remember an article about that man. He's the youngest Director of Research of the Junnishi, at only twenty-seven. The director has good looks, which he uses to his advantages when it comes to the ladies (there's even a fan club going around, so Haru heard), plus, with the combination of his brains, he had landed the job only about a year ago. There had been rumors that he bought his way in, but Haru decided to ignore the rumors, since he's only worried about his family and not some Director.

The Director gave a triumphant grin. "So, the only wild Junnishi left has finally shown himself. I always knew that I would be the one to capture him and finally complete the collection."

Haru noticed that Kyo began to panic and look around, as if searching for an unseen way to get out. Finally, they landed on Haru's own eyes. At first, it seemed an idea popped into his head (something that dealt with him, no doubt) but it seemed he quickly dismissed it. However, after a few more minutes of staring at Haru, a smirk graced Kyo's lips and Hatsuharu instantly knew what Kyo's going to try.

"Haru!" The teen shouted, startling everyone. "This is all your fault!"

Haru clenched his hands, trying to quell his "Black" side.

"I mean, come on! Did you really expect us to just 'waltz' right on out of here?" Kyo turned his back to his cousin. "I'm ashamed to even know you."

Kyo just knew where to press the right buttons, Haru though angrily. Kyo obviously knew that Haru really doesn't like ungrateful people, especially since Haru had been spending most of his time trying to get the family back together again.

The director and the others watching stared at the two while all of the one-sided arguing went on. "If you don't mind," The director said with false pleasantness. "I would like to capture you two, now."

"Shut up, damn it!" Kyo shouted, resisting the urge to hiss warningly at the man. With a final glare, he turned around, facing to Haru. "I guess that you wouldn't care though. You haven't experienced the same hell I went through. You're just too self-centered to care."

Haru's hands clenched even further, his nails began to dig into the palms of his hand.

Kyo, on the other hand, was wondering why Hatsuharu was holding back, he knew that Haru snapped for less than what Kyo was doing. "Fine! If you aren't going to snap, then I don't care."

The Director figured that it was a good time to interfere, least the subject and the soon to be subject "SHA-1644" start to fight and accidentally kill each other, they hadn't gotten to the dissection portion of the research, he needed them intact. The director nodded to several of the guards, motioning to capture the two. Kyo began to struggle as soon as the arm in a very firm grip captured him. His arm began to tingle, which began to spread along his body in a fast, and familiar way. They were using a teaser on him, using it to subdue him. Within a few seconds, he heard a "snap" and a gunshot.

Silence fell on everyone.

"Is this what you want, you mangy, flea-bitten, cat?" Haru's voice, which was normally relaxed and laid back, although slightly not so much since the family had been split apart, is now dark, and deadly. His eyes were wild and sharp; and unlike the laid back look of his eyes when he's normal, they were a light color with the pupils shrunken to a small dot.

Kyo's eyes, after the feeling of paralyzation left, went over to the Director, and discovered that the gunshot was aimed at the Director. The Director, himself, laid on the ground, motionless, and quite dead from the bullet that entered his heart. Kyo was slightly surprised at the fact that Haru actually killed someone, but still, a year could change a person and when you are on your own, anything could happen. To him, it's just like "the survival of the fittest" and evidentially; the Director wasn't fit at all. The people that were circled around them, where at a loss as what to do, a very important member of the Organization was just killed and now there wasn't anyone to give the instructions.

"Is there anyone else?" Haru asked, glaring at everyone that surrounded the two.

Kyo, on the inside, was dancing for joy. "Black" Haru has awakened and now they have a fighting chance of actually making it out of there alive.

After Haru's statement, chaos ensued. Several gunshots ranged out in the hall, a few people fell at being teased on accident, and others backed away slowly in order to not get into the fight.

A few moments later, everyone stopped fighting, claiming to have one of the "Junnishi" in his or her grasps, only to find out that they were holding onto someone else's arms and legs. The two members of the zodiac were nowhere to be seen.

…………………………………………………

"Augh," Haru groaned as they reached the garage where Haru had parked the Jeep (a very old machine, but highly effective, thought Kyo as soon as he had heard about it). "I feel so tired."

Kyo gave his distant relative a short glare. "You think? You just turned 'Black.' Doesn't this happen all the time?"

Haru shrugged as he put the key into the whole and unlocked the door. Sometimes, depending on how Black he goes and what he does when his other personality is in control, Hatsuharu will get tired. "A mystery," He finally said as the two entered the vehicle.

Kyo sighed and buckled up. "You always say that instead of saying 'I don't know.'"

Haru grinned as the Jeep roared to live.

Before they left the garage, Haru pulled of the itchy wig and took out the contacts, making sure to put them into their correct containers. Kyo followed his cousin's example, pulling off the wig and taking out the contacts. They threw the materials used for the disguises into the back of the Jeep. They even took a moment to take off the lab coats and discarded them with the rest of the stuff in the back. Haru pulled out a comb from out of nowhere and fixed his silvery white hair into its regular place after being mussed up by the wig.

"Are you still vain when it comes to your hair?" Kyo asked, scowling at the delay.

"Yep," Haru replied, putting the comb away and put the Jeep into reverse and pulled out of the garage. Sunlight hit them through the openings between the metal bars, warming the both of them up, and the wind fluttered past as soon as the car started moving.

"Where are we going next?" Kyo asked as the buildings started to whirl past, becoming even fewer and less clustered, as they got further away from the heart of the city.

"Old Tokyo," Haru replied. Old Tokyo was one of the remaining cities that weren't destroyed in the Great War sixty years earlier. "I heard that Yuki's being kept there."

Kyo cursed. "Let's get the bastard later. He can stay there longer; it'll toughen him up. Besides, you're going in the wrong direction, it's North of here." The only thing he knew about the area is that it's south of Tokyo.

Haru shook his head as he turned in the opposite direction, making sure to go around the large city that they just got out of. "He's the only lead that I have. I was going to check their database to see about any of the others, but I forgot."

"You forgot?" Kyo stared at his cousin in pure wonderment and when he didn't receive a reply, he knew what the answer was. Kyo sighed; he was way too tired to deal with this. Slowly, he went to sleep where the nightmares of the dark room could get to him.

Haru could see his companion falling to sleep out of the corner of his eye. He was truly happy to have one of the family back. He cast an assessing look around the vehicle and realized that there won't be enough room for everyone. "Whatever," he muttered, deciding to cross that bridge when it comes.

…………………………………………………………………

Kyo woke up shivering, and yet sweaty, still trembling from the nightmare. He didn't want Hatsuharu to see how scared he looked (and felt) and so he turned his head to look out the window in order to try to figure out where they are in order to put his mind on something else.

"Where are we?" He finally asked, seeing that nothing looked familiar. All around was cliffs and dried out dirt flying up because of the wheels, suggesting one of the areas that was decimated years ago and became a desert wasteland.

"Nearing Old Tokyo," Haru replied after driving over a particularly nasty bump.

Kyo's eyes focused on the horizon. There, in the distance, miles, and miles away, buildings arose from the ground, the sun glaring brightly behind them. They seemed out of place, like a mirage or a figment of his imagination, cause by his thirst and hunger. He hadn't eaten anything since the night before his escape and it's nearing night. All in all, the huge city is a relief to see. "When we get there," Kyo said, breaking the silence that fell in the truck. "Can we get something to eat?"

Haru nodded in agreement. He was hungry too and having been driving all day most of the day made him really tired. "We'll also have to find a place to stay."

Kyo grabbed Haru's wallet from the cup holder in front of the dashboard. There wasn't much in it, only a few dollars, just enough for very cheap food. They'll probably have to sleep in the Jeep too.

The Old Tokyo city loomed closer and closer with each rotation of the wheels. The sky turned a brilliant shade of colors; purples, pinks, even blues, all blending together slowly, getting darker and darker in shade with each moment the sun sunk further into the ground. The sun was completely gone by the time they arrived at the city- having spent a few moments to put disguises on in order to get a clearance into the city- and the moon smiled as it took it's turn to brighten the sky.

The only thing that Kyo knew, for a fact, about Old Tokyo is that its one of the last, original, major city in the world, hence the "Old." Old Tokyo was around before the devastating war that nearly annihilated the whole planet. He also heard, from the scientists during one of his probing sessions, that there was a resistance going on in the city that had been causing the Foundation some troubles.

"We're going to gather info tomorrow," Haru said, interrupting Kyo's thoughts as he turned into a parking lot. "Need to gather info on how to get in and stuff."

Kyo scowled, as it was customary. "And how are we supposed to do that?"

The sides of Haru's mouth lifted just a tad. "Let's just say 'Dr. Aki,' that you have an appointment tomorrow morning."

Great, Kyo thought dryly, more disguises. His scalp had only stopped being scratchy just a while ago. He grimaced as he remembered the feel of the contacts on his eyes. They made his eyes red and puffy, like he was crying or something and if there was one thing (aside from Yuki) he hated, it's looking weak in front of anyone. Then there was the blending in with the jerks and assholes inside of the building, oh, well; he always did like a challenge.

The engine cut off and the both of them got out of the vehicle. In front of them stood a shady looking bar, complete with the broken sign and the neon light hooked onto the window, displaying what type of beers it sold and what type of "women" was available.

Haru grabbed a trench coat and a hat from the back of the vehicle. Placing the hat onto his head and wrapping the trench coat around him, Haru handed Kyo a baseball cap and a jacket. After Kyo, whilst grumbling, put on the two articles, they crossed the parking lot.

"There's one thing that just occurred to me," said Kyo as they entered through the door. "How'd you get a license? And a Jeep?" He added as an after thought.

Haru seemed to gain a reflective moment in his eyes. "Who says that I even have a license"?

"WHAT?" Kyo shouted, causing a few of the other customers to look in their direction. Sure Haru was of the right age to be legally driving (he is sixteen, after all), and the government really didn't care all that much about license anymore, but couldn't he have taken a class or something, or even learned safe driving from someone?

"Plus, I can be very persuasive when I need something."

In other words, Haru went Black, stole the vehicle from some poor sap, and drove off into the sunset, laughing manically as he did so (not necessarily that last part though).

Haru grinned as a thought occurred to him. "Should I tell you how I got the guns and the disguises?"

Kyo thought it was best to ignore him after that moment.

The inside of the bar was smoky from the cigars and cigarettes (plus the weed that Kyo could detect in the air) and there was a low murmur from the patrons as an unknown band played, rather poorly, in some far off corner. Just by the way some of the others were talking, Kyo realized that it's one of those places were people go to hide from one thing or another.

They both sat down at the bar, sitting side by side, ignoring the annoyed looks from those around them. The bartender asked them what they wanted. Kyo asked for the cheapest meal and some water, where as Haru ordered some Miso soup and a beer. The bartender left, heading to the back, telling the cooks to "get their asses in gear."

"Beer?" Kyo asked with a raising eyebrow as the poor played music flowed lightly through his ears. "Aren't you a minor?"

Haru shrugged noncommittally.

Kyo began to figure that he needed something to tone down the senses and dull the memory of something; Kyo knew, however, that no matter what he would do, there are always going to be something that he'll remember from his hellhole.

"The water's supposedly bad here," Haru finally responded after a while.

The orange haired teen was about to make a comment, but was interrupted by the abrupt plate of semi-warm food landing in front of him with a small "clank" sound, followed by the thud the mug of water. He stared for a moment; neither of the two looked appealing, however, the sight of water and the smells of real food began to overwhelm him. The thirst won out the hunger, after a hard battle, and he picked up the dirty looking mug with one hand and took a long gulp.

Only to spit it back into the container it came from.

"Told you," Haru's comment arrived as Kyo dove into the food in order to get rid of the taste of the coppery and semi-slimy water.

They munched in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Kyo began to wonder what were they going to do once they get Yuki and the others. Would they go back into hiding, or would they try to get rid of the system that found them and trapped them into a nightmare. He hopped that it would be the latter, that way he could exact some revenge on the Foundation for ruining the Soumas' lives.

A while later, they left the bar, full and less thirsty then before entering the establishment. Nighttime had fallen even further on the city and the moon could hardly be seen from behind the buildings and clouds. There were a few weird characters walking around- it was a city, after all- some muttering about one thing and others just giving a "stay away from me" vibe. Kyo even flinched when this one weird looking one ran up to him and asked if that he wanted to have some fun that night.

Haru's grip on his shoulder was the only thing that stopped him from attacking the person.

"He's mine," Haru warned the stranger with a small glint in his eyes. To add emphasis to his statement, he drew a finger down the side of Kyo's cheek.

As the person ran away, Kyo felt a small vein beginning to throb, right over his left eyebrow. "You're a sicko, you do know that right?"

Haru shrugged as he replied, "A person's got to do what a person's got to do."

"Yeah, right. I bet you are just drunk."

Nothing else was said as they reached the Jeep, which was, miraculously, unscathed and untouched by whomever might be out there just waiting for a sap to leave something unguarded.

They entered the vehicle with a slam of the two doors and a few moments later, the Jeep roared to life and they pulled out of the parking lot and onto the streets of the old city. Cars passed by in a whirl of streaking lights, heading in the opposite direction and their red taillights flashed in the rearview mirror. They drove along the road for a few moments and Haru suddenly took a turn into an alley.

"We'll take turns keeping wake," He said as he pulled out a gun and handed it to Kyo, telling him to not shoot unless they're being threatened by a real threat. "I'll need to sleep first since I've been driving all day." He took off the wig and the contacts, putting them away for later with Kyo following suit.

Kyo nodded as the other leaned the back of the seat as far as he could go and promptly closed his eyes, allowing him to go to sleep. He really didn't mind that his distant cousin went to sleep; it just means that the nightmares wouldn't get to him until later.

No, he really didn't mind at all…

………………………………………

Morning greeted them early as the sun reflected off of the buildings' windows and hit his eyelids. Eyes fluttering open, Kyo leaned up from the seemingly uncomfortable position. His back made a cracking sound as he stretched his limbs as far as he could while being in such a small area.

Haru craned his neck over the side of his seat with a questioning look as Kyo, who was in the back, yawned. "How'd you get back there?" He asked as his lazy eyes landed on him.

That's what Kyo wanted to know, he must've moved while he was half-asleep or something. He clambered over the armrest that separated the driver's seat from the passenger's. "Wouldn't you know? You were the one who was supposed to keep the second watch."

"Must've fell asleep, again," Haru replied as the car roared to live, once again.

Kyo restrained a growl as Haru went into gear and pulled into the early morning traffic.

Half and hour later, Haru swore as a bit of Black pulled through. Kyo sighed. Figures that Hatsuharu would get lost, even if he did have the map clutched tightly in his hands and looked at it every five minutes or so. "We're going to the Facility, right?" Kyo asked as he took the almost torn map away from Haru.

Haru nodded, obviously too angry to say anything.

"Turn right," Kyo ordered after he found the street that they were driving on. "Then, at the next intersection, take a left and it should be right in front of us."

Haru followed the instructions, cursing only when someone cut him off.

The Facility, to say the least, was huge. A hundred floors, at least, Kyo wanted to wager as he took in the white wash paint of the building. It's even bigger then the building he was kept in. It would take forever to find Yuki in that behemoth of architecture. Moreover, he had to find the rat in that maze. Haru wasn't going to help out, saying that he had to make sure that one of them has to stay behind just in case the other fails, so that they'll have at least one of the Junnishi running around. They played "Rock, Paper, Scissors" in order to figure out who would go.

Kyo always did suck at those types of games.

Still cursing, Kyo put on the disguise, yet again, and grabbed the briefcase that had a small, one-way radio attached to it. He slipped the gun into one of the pockets, making sure that it was loaded and ready for use.

"I'll be monitoring," Haru said as he pulled a pair of headphones over his ears.

Nodding, Kyo headed to the imposing building, gaining nerve as he took each step closer.

He flashed the fake Id card at the guard, wondering where did Haru get the card and how long has he been planning this and how many other plans did he have for the rest of the family. The guard nodded and allowed him through the front doors. Cold air blasted into his face, cooling him down a bit from the summer heat. That was easy, he wanted to muttered, however stopped himself before he could.

His blue, contact covered eyes wondered around the main area, wondering where to go from there. They landed on the Customer Service booth, located conveniently in front of him. Deciding that there wasn't any other place to start from, he walked over to where the smiling woman stood behind a glass case. "I'm a specialist from… Washington. I'm on the new team for the researching of…" He pretended to look at something in his briefcase. "Subject SY-1743. I need to know where the research room is."

The woman's fresh and bright smile seemed to tone down a little as she gave something short of a worried look. "Can I have your Id?" She asked.

Kyo handed over the rectangular piece of plastic, hoping that he just didn't screw everything up.

The woman scanned it with a scanner and frowned thoughtfully as results were pulled up onto the screen in front of her. "So, you're the specialist coming from D.C. You're early," She told him as she began to smile again and handed him back the Id. "We weren't expecting you for another week or so."

Kyo remembered to breath as he grinned slightly from the adrenaline rush. "There was a small change of plans. Which room is SY-1743 in?" He really did hate referring to his cousin as a number.

"Sub floor three, room number five," the woman replied, smiling even brighter. "Why don't you go ahead and evaluate the situation. Some of the others should be down there all ready."

Kyo nodded his thanks and headed for the elevator. After punching in the floor that he needed, a message popped up in the message center located above the buttons, asking for his pin number. Upon the pressing of the buttons, the elevator lurched downward. Feeling a bit claustrophobic at the small space, he closed his eyes and imagined what used to be his home. A moment later, it stopped moving and the doors slide open, letting him get off.

He walked along the hallway, searching until he found the door he needed and entered.

The occupants of the room turned their heads away from the large, one-way window, in order to see whom the newcomer was.

"Specialist from D.C." Kyo said as he walked up to the window. He peered through the large glass and saw Yuki being probed and poked at with what looks like little electrodes.

And through out it all, the teen was glaring at the window with a challenging look in his eyes, even though the rest of him looked submissive.

Kyo wanted to kill all the bastards.

No one, and he meant NO ONE, is allowed to torture Yuki like that. It's Kyo's sole duty, as Yuki's opposite, to beat him (even if he was the one to always get beaten half to death by his cousin, but one of these days…) in a fight and he couldn't do that if his opponent was too weak from being probed and electrocuted.

"What?" He asked as soon as he realized that one of the other researchers had said something to him.

"We still can't find out what makes the Junnishi transform," One of them repeated as he turned his head away from the spectacle. "All we know, and we've known this for a long time, is that they morph when they are embraced by someone of the opposite sex. We still can't find out if it's caused genetically or what."

Damn fools, Kyo wanted to shout out as he unconsciously clenched his hands. It wasn't genetics, or at least not all the way, there was the curse to put into play and that is something that science could never explain.

"What do you suggest?" One asked.

Kyo shook his head. "I'll have to evaluate him first, but that'll take all day and I'll need to be left alone with it (he hated saying that) so that I can concentrate."

The scientists nodded in understanding. Besides, the methods of "research" were starting to get boring anyway. The room emptied out a moment later, leaving only Kyo in the dark room.

Checking to make sure that there wasn't anyone else around, Kyo opened the door stationed next to the one-way window. The bright light still shone on the teen in the center of the white room and the teen cocked open any eyebrow in his direction. "Hello, idiot cat."

Kyo clenched his hands even further. "How'd you know it was me?" He asked as he let the insult slide.

Yuki raised an eyebrow in Kyo's direction. "Well, idiot cat, one of your unsightly orange hairs is sticking out of that ungodly wig of yours."

"Still a bastard, I see," Kyo spat as he took in Yuki's form. He still had that feminine appearance and his dark grey hair looked a bit longer then when he last saw him. His silver eyes still had that condescending look as they narrowed at the insult (or therefore, lack of).

"And you are still an idiot that can't even insult me properly."

"Just shut up!" He shouted, not caring if he got caught. "I'm trying to get you out of here."

"And what a marvelous job you are doing," Yuki's cool voice bounced back.

"Damn it!" Kyo swore as he took several long strides to his cousin's side. "If it weren't for the fact that Haru's waiting for me, and its below me, I'd kill you and to hell with Akito."

"Then why don't you?" Yuki asked as several long strands of his bangs covered his eyes.

"Wha-?"

"I think that I'd rather be dead then have them figure out our secret even more then they all ready have."

Kyo clenched his teeth, making them throb in warning at the sudden pressure. "You mean that, don't you?"

"I wouldn't have said it if I didn't mean it."

Kyo growled out slightly as he punched the space next to Yuki's head. "Damn you, you stupid rat! I should've never come in here and tried to save you."

"Then," Yuki whispered. "Why don't you get out while you still can?"

"Because, he can't." The new voice caused Kyo to whirl around and Yuki to lift his head up from the table that he was strapped to.

"Crap," Kyo said as another scientist entered the room. He had just been discovered and now there's hell to pay…

ooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Authoress's Notie:

There was something I needed to explain, but I forgot what it was…

I think that I need to explain the time period, I can't remember if I did in the last chapter or not. This is set in a time that still has Jeeps, but sometime in the future. The year the war was finished in is the Year of the Apocalypse or year Zero since after the war, there wasn't much left since everyone was using nuclear war heads and etc to finish off their enemies. There are, however, a few cities that are still left standing and are known as the Old cities (Old Tokyo, for example). Evidently, it's Science (more specifically, genetic engineering) that is ruling the world; the government may act like it has all the power (I haven't gotten that far to given an example) but it's really the Science community that's in control. Currently, in relations to the story, its Sixty years after the war.

Now that I got that out of my system, I remembered what I needed to say. Sorry about Hatsu, I think I made him more macho then he's supposed to be on accident and I think I made Kyo seem a bit weak in the beginning, hopefully, by the next chapter, I'll have the kinks worked out and they'll be less OOC. The good news is that I managed to get Yuki's character down perfectly, which upsets me since I'm not a Yuki fan, although, in terms of the manga, I can understand his situation, but I still don't like him.

Originally, this was going to be a Haru centered fiction, but somehow I wrote the prologue and it turned into this. At least I gave him the important part of being a Wild Juunishi (in other words, the only one that isn't captured). I'm such a sad person…

Questions? Comments? Complaints? Just wanna have me do the chicken dance? Just click on the purple button and off you go…

The Can-Can group


	3. Facility

Disclaimie:

Nish-wo…

Another Onigiri Tale

Chapter 2: Facility

Plot by: The Can-Can group

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Tohru's eyes fluttered open. For a moment, she was comatose as the bright light coming from the lights of the underground rebels camp flooded into her small tent through the mesh window.

"Tohru? Are you coming?" Uo's voice fluttered through the crack between the flaps leading into her tent.

There was something special about that day, Tohru figured, since her friend, Uotani Arisa, would never try to meet up with her that early in the morning.

"We've got a surprise for you, but we can't do that if you aren't there for you to be surprised."

Surprise? Surprise… Surprise… Now, what would be so special about a day that you would need a surprise for it?

"I think she forgot what today was." Hanajima Saki's airy voice joined in. Both of her friends were there, at her tent, talking about something that only they know and that Tohru, apparently, had forgotten about.

"You think so?"

There wasn't a reply so Tohru assumed that the dark haired girl had nodded in response.

"It's your birthday!" Uo cried out in apparent irritation. "Your seventeenth! How can anyone forget that?"

With a rush of furry, Tohru got out of bed with her pajamas still on, ran to the front entrance of the tent, and pulled the two flaps back so that she could take in the view of her surprised friends. Uo looked a little shocked and slightly scared at the abrupt entrance of Tohru. Hana, on the other hand, had a ghost of a smile on her face. "Is it really today?" Tohru asked, slightly hyper.

The two girls nodded (Uo looking dumbfounded more then anything). With a huge grin on her face, Tohru raced back into the tent, all the while shouting, "MOM!"

"Mom! Its my birthday!" She yelled out happily as she collapsed in front of the picture of the deceased Kyoko. Picking up the frame, Tohru hugged it closely to her body, like she would if her mother really was there, in front of her. Smiling with a few drops of tears coming out of the sides of her eyes, she looked at the picture and it seemed to grin back at her. "Thanks, mom," she muttered to the picture.

The picture still was the Id that was issued out to everyone in the camp (with Kyoko's own picture on it, of course). Tohru had received a frame from someone the year before and decided to put her mom in the frame, that way, she would be protected better then if she allowed the plastic covering to do that particular job.

"You coming?" Uo asked as she peered into the tent, checking in on her friend, making sure that she didn't hurt herself or anything.

Tohru hastily put the frame back on top of the bookcase. "I'll be ready in a minute," she chirped and grabbed her clothes from the folded pile next to her futon. Uo nodded, satisfied with the answer, and pulled her head back, giving Tohru the privacy she needed.

Moments later, the girl with the brown colored hair and the warm, milk chocolate eyes, exited the tent in an excited manner. Her two friends were stationed just outside the tent, Uo glaring at passer-bys and Hana with her eyes closed, as if ignoring the world around her.

"Ready?" Uo asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Yes," Tohru nodded with a slight bow. "I am humbly ready for any surprise you might have for me."

Uo grinned as she moved a piece of her bleached hair out of the way of her eyes. "Then surprising we shall do." She turned around and headed down a pathway with the other two following close behind.

People waved at Tohru, some even wishing her a "happy birthday" as they went about their own average days. A lot of the people felt sorry for her when her mother died two years ago, some even offered her the chance to live in their tents so that she wouldn't be alone all the time. However, she politely declined, explaining that she would prefer to live in the same tent that she had always lived in, and where her memories of her mom were. It made Tohru happy, though, to have everyone worrying about her so much.

"This way," Uo instructed as she turned down another path. Tohru blinked. The path was awfully familiar, it lead to something, something that she had visited just the week before, but she couldn't remember what it was.

A hand gently touched her shoulder. Tohru paused in her walking as she turned her head to see Hana. "I forgot to mention happy birthday to you," the serene looking girl said, a hint of a smile on her face.

Tohru smiled brightly back. "Thanks. Just hearing you say that, means very much to me."

"Yo! Are you guys coming or what?" Uo shouted irritably. She waited for the other two to catch up to her before continuing.

A few more turns onto different paths lead them to the canal filled with lazy moving water. A few feet away from it a picnic was laid out, complete with the basket filled with food and the blanket. "Thank you so much!" Tohru hugged her two friends. For a long time, she has always wanted to have a picnic on the surface instead underneath it. Granted, they couldn't go to the surface and risk exposure, but it's the thought that counts.

One grinned and the other smiled as they took out the food and placed them onto the blanket. It was a tad uncomfortable, sitting on the slabs of stone that made up the ground of the camp, but that didn't stop them from enjoying it to the fullest.

"Megumi," Hana said after sipping tea from a thermos cap. "Says that he gave you a curse of good luck. He says that 'it will take about a day for it to come into effect, but when it does, you'll find that everything will go your way.'" Megumi, unlike his sister who uses Poison waves to basically "see" what people are feeling and even put images into their heads, he can curse people just by knowing their names. He uses two types of curses, the good type where good things happen, and the bad type, where bad things happen to you.

Out of the two siblings, Hana is more powerful. When she was younger, she could "hear" peoples' inner voices, the ones that can't say anything, even though there is something strong they have to say. About four or five years ago, she had finally learned how to block them out so that the voices won't get into her head when she doesn't want them to.

"I should've brought mom with me," Tohru mumbled regrettably.

"Don't worry about it," Uo replied, patting the girl on her back. "She would've wanted you to have fun and not worry about it."

Tohru nodded, even though she was still doubtful about it.

Uo was from the surface, just like Kyoko was, and was even more of a punk then her. It was Kyoko that had invited the troubled Arisa into the camp, saying that it would help her get past some of her problems. Uo was reluctant about it, probably thinking that it was too good to be true, however, after hearing the story of Kyoko's troubled teens, she decided to give the camp a try and had stayed ever since.

"Its very faint," said Hana, getting into the conversation. "But, I can fell your mother. She's proud of you."

"Thanks, you guys," Tohru smiled happily for the two of them. "This has been the best, ever."

"No probs," Uo replied with a grin on her face.

"You are most welcome," Hana nodded in agreement.

The rest of the morning flowed on by as the three friends chatted and talked about this and that, and being actual teenagers for once, instead of rebels. It was rare for them to have days like this, them having fun and all. The last time that they had a day like that one was a few months earlier. Most of the time, they are helping around the camp and with the cause. They really had barely any time to say "hi" to each other if they were to meet out along the streets of the camp.

"I've got to get going," Uo announced after checking her watch. "There's a meeting I need to get to."

They cleaned up the picnic area and headed in different directions after saying their goodbyes.

Tohru walked through the camp, allowing the smells of the dinners being made to attack her senses. Most of the foods that they were allowed to eat were things that didn't need to be cooked (it was a rare treat to have cooked meats) or things that were smoked. The reason why they can't cook foods is because of the fires that would be used to make them, the smoke would need ventilation, or they could get monoxide poisoning from the harmful chemicals. In addition, since electricity was very limited in the camp (used manly for the lights and the third rate computers) ovens couldn't be used.

To compensate, the women of the camp would soak vegetables and other produce in water with various spices and herbs, which would be diffused into the vegetables (through the process of osmosis) and end up giving an enhanced flavor. Another result was a very slight smell that could make any man's mouth water in anticipation.

"Honda!"

"Yes?" Tohru asked, seeing one of the older women who assigned jobs to the other women of the camps. The woman was in her middle ages with her hair all ready starting to grey from her aging. The lady was strict, but nice at the same time, she always knew if someone was working that day or if they had nothing to do. She was one of the ladies to help Tohru after her mother died.

"You're not doing anything to day." Most definitely a statement. "I'm going to need you to clean up after dinner."

Tohru nodded. Dinner wouldn't be for another few hours, so that would mean she would have plenty of time to do other stuff. "Sure."

"Thanks," the woman smiled lightly before going off to yell at another woman who was adding too much oregano to one of the pots.

First thing first, Tohru needed to go check to see if there were any changes to her mission for the next day. The place to do that would be the tent were the HQ club used to be (her mom didn't say what the HQ stood for), which was in the center of the camp. After her mother died, the team that used to reside there split up and left the tent for the council's use.

Since she was all ready in the heart of the camp, it was only a hop and skip to get to the tent.

Inside of the tent, there were a few people bustling around as they talked into radios and typed things onto the computers. Others were running in and out of the tent as they went to deliver messages and what not to other areas.

A man at the table looked up at Tohru as soon as she entered the tent. He was one of the council members, he generally was the one to oversee the operations in that tent, and made sure that everything goes smoothly. "You here to check? Am I correct?"

Tohru nodded, she was slightly nervous at talking with such a high-ranking official. "It's an honor to talk to you, sir." Tohru said, feeling slightly smaller then normal.

"You don't need to be so formal," The man replied. He picked up a folder and opened it. After reading the contents, he shut it close and looked back at her. "Just need to check up on their progress with the Zodiac project, nothing major."

The Zodiac project was perhaps the most notorious thing that the whole entire Foundation was working on. The council wasn't sure what was going on with the project, except that there was a family whose lives were destroyed because of it. Tohru's job was manly to check up on the Facility's progress on it. They gave her the job mostly because the council thought that she might've inherited some of Katsuya's and Kyoko's skills. However, she was too kind to do the job, so they just made her keep an eye on things.

"Okay," replied Tohru. Bowing, she left the tent, entering the busy camp.

Now that was out of the way, Tohru had nothing else to do until after dinner. That spelled boredom for her. The only thing that came to mind was the laundry, which she had done a week earlier, at the canal were she was at with her friends that morning. Seeing that's the only thing that she could do, Tohru headed back to her tent.

"I'm home," Tohru announced, pulling back the flaps so that she could enter. "We had fun today." Her mother seemed to grin even more in response.

The dirty pile was placed in the far corner of the tent, opposite of the clean pile that way the two piles wouldn't intermingle with each other. Grabbing a bag, she stuffed it with the dirty laundry, gathered soap, and re-exited the tent.

She walked along the familiar route to the canal, the same route that she and her mom would take when laundry day would come around. Whenever they had to do the laundry, her mom would get hyper and start splashing Tohru, which would end in a huge water fight and the laundry not being done.

Tohru smiled sadly at the memory. Even though it had been two years since her mother's death, it felt like yesterday. Before she went into a downward spiral, Tohru brushed everything from her mind and focused on the task.

Without realizing it, her feet had brought her to the canal where others were doing their laundry or cleaning other stuff.

Picking a spot, Tohru bent down and dumped the bag of clothes onto the stone ground. Humming to herself, she got to work on scrubbing the soap into the cloths and rinsing it out so that there's no residue from the soap left. Once all that was done, she hung the clothes along the complementary clothesline, where they would hang till they're dry, which would take a day to do. In the camp, no one is allowed to steal from someone else since any crimes like that would create tension (which is something that they really don't need), which is why she would leave the clothes there; no one would dare to ruin the delicate harmony of the camp.

Humming to herself, Tohru went back to the main area, where dinner was just getting started.

People lined up in front of tables with vats and plates of various foods. It took several minutes for her to get to the front of the line and by that time, her stomach was (embarrassingly) growling out loud in hunger. "Corn, please," Tohru asked the woman who was serving.

Nodding, the woman used tongs to pick up the aforementioned vegetable. Placing it onto a plate, the woman said, "Here you go. Next!"

Slinking away, Tohru went to a secluded area where she could eat in peace. A few minutes later, a tired Arisa joined her.

"Man," Uo said as she took a seat with a plop. "I'm beat. I had to help get some food from above and help serve. Not exactly the greatest fun."

Tohru smiled as she bit into the corn-on-the-cob.

"What did you do today?" Uo asked after getting over her slight rant.

"I went to check to see what I have to do tomorrow and I washed my laundry," replied Tohru, finishing up the corn.

"Good luck with that."

The two chatted for a little bit, until someone came saying that Tohru needs to get going with the dishes. "I'll see you tomorrow," Uo yawned as they split ways.

……………

The next morning found Tohru asleep in her futon with her alarm clock going off like crazy. Peeking at the numbers displayed on the ringing clock, Tohru shut it off and got out of the warm comfort of the bed. Searching around the clean clothes pile, she found the uniform that she would need for her mission of the day.

Putting the outfit on and putting her hair up in two braids, she left the tent. Her feet carried her to the HQ tent where she would receive a radio to keep contact and any other info that she might need.

"Tunnel three is safe," one of the security watchers, announced, looking away from the screen for only a moment before going back to it.

"Okay, thank you."

Tohru left after that, heading to the said tunnel, which would bring her to an alley between a floral shop and a bar that was a few blocks away from the Facility. Her flat heels tapped on the stones and echoed through the dark and dank tunnel. Her eyes adjusted to the little amount of light just as she reached the end. Fumbling around, Tohru found the keypad were she entered her number, which would release the mechanism and allow her to leave the underground area.

Breathing in the semi-fresh air, Tohru smiled. She always had enjoyed the rare treat of having real sunlight hitting her face and air that wasn't circulated poorly.

Regaining herself, Tohru exited the alley, after checking to make sure that there wasn't anyone there to see her merge from basically out of nowhere.

It was a Monday in the city of Old Tokyo. People were out and about, trying to get to work before they become late. Mothers dragged their sleepy children from one errand to the next and traffic was flowing as smoothly as it could in a huge city. These are one of the things Tohru secretly desired, being on the surface with everyone else and not have to worry about anyone getting killed whilst on a mission.

Tohru frowned at the thought. In reality, she should be grateful, she has two great friends and her life is somewhat exciting, she really has no room to complain.

The Facility loomed in front of her. Such an imposing building, Tohru thought as she entered, smiling at the guards. Containing many secrets and conspiracies made it even more mysterious.

It was up to her to help figure out what's going on inside the large building.

……………

Three hours passed.

Tohru's "job" was working the Customer Service desk where she would help point people in the right direction with a friendly smile on her face. The point was to make the place seem normal and not some building with terrible things going on behind the scenes.

One man in particular caught her eye. He was looking around, searching for something, no doubt, and seemed to give up. She watched as he walked up to her desk, looking nervous about something. He told her that he was a specialist from somewhere and even looked in his briefcase for a moment to tell her that he was there for SY-1743.

Tohru could feel her smile fall a little. There was supposed to be someone coming from Washington, but that wasn't for another week. She asked for his ID and as he gave the rectangular plastic to her, he seemed to become even more nervous looking.

She slid the card through the scanner. The results popped onto the screen. After looking at it for a moment to see if the picture that was on the screen looked like the guy in front of her she smiled and told him that they weren't expecting him for a while.

The guy looked relieved at her words and asked her were the project was at. Smiling, she gave him the room number and watched as he left. However, something was odd about his wing, there was a piece of orange hair sticking out amongst the brown strands.

"How odd," muttered Tohru.

Taking out her radio and turning the volume down very low, she tapped a message (via Morse code, a very ancient form of communication) to the HQ tent, explaining what just happened. She waited a few moments for someone to check the databases about anything on "Dr. Aki." A few minutes later, a series of very tiny beeps told her that the Dr. Aki that just arrived is an imposter. The beeps also told her that one of the Junnishi escaped the night before.

Tohru had to turn the radio off before the message could be finished, one of her "employers" walked by, and it wouldn't do to have her position compromised.

The message was lost, however, the beeps gave her enough info to put two and two together, coupled with the fact that she was sure that the orange hair was natural and no one else had hair like that. The imposter "Dr. Aki" is in fact an imposter. Tohru raised an eyebrow in confusion at herself, she said "imposter" twice…

Shrugging Tohru told her boss that she was going to go and take her break.

……………

"Crap," Kyo swore as the scientist brought out a gun.

"You know," The scientist said softly as he regarded the weapon in his hand. "You Junnishi really do have such beautiful looks. Ever since I have laid my eyes on your little cousin over there," Kyo growled and Yuki looked slightly sick, "I've wanted to surround myself in your family's radiance." He took a step closer, lust filling his eyes as Kyo took a step back and bumped into Yuki's table/ bed.

"I will own every single one of your family," The scientist whispered, an evil smile growing on his face.

"Idiot," Yuki muttered, getting Kyo's attention while he kept an eye on the enemy in front of him. "Get me out of these straps."

Kyo lowered confused eyebrows. "How?" He asked back.

Yuki tilted his head towards a console next to where he was lying. "Just press the blue button."

Quicker then the scientist could keep up with, Kyo rounded to the other side of Yuki and pressed the button as his cousin had instructed. The buckles unlocked themselves with a "snap" and the leather straps were reeled into the grooves along the side of the bed.

Kyo watched as Yuki stood up to his full height and gave such a chilling glare at the scientist. "I might be just a tad rusty," Yuki commented, as the scientist seemed to pale. "However, this should be just enough to cause at least some damage."

With a blink of an eye, Yuki was all ready half way to the scientist and with another blink, the distance was closed and the man was sent flying. Yuki turned to Kyo. "Is there anything you'd like to add?"

Clenching his hands, Kyo walked up to the struggling scientist, and punched him in the stomach so hard that blood dribbled out of the sides of his mouth. "There's nothing beautiful about us!" Kyo shouted in pure anger. "We are cursed bastards, so twisted and ugly you can't even imagine!" His hand unconsciously went to the blood red and white beads that make up the bracelet on his wrist.

"Come, stupid cat," Yuki ordered, heading out of the room that he had been in for so long.

Growling and grudgingly, Kyo followed after the rat.

Yuki stopped in front of him, causing Kyo to bump into his back. "What's going on?"

"We're surrounded."

Kyo wanted to rip everyone's throats out. "Again?" He shouted in irritation. Just once, he'd like to do a rescue mission that didn't involve being surrounded by a bunch of idiotic scientists and guards.

They both tensed up, preparing to fight the horde in front of them. However, just as both sides were about to attack, the sprinklers in the ceiling above them released water, spraying everyone and everything in the room. Scientists made a rush to turn the equipment off so that nobody would get electrocuted from the water conducting the sparks of electricity coming from the machines and the guards just made a run for it.

While all the chaos was going on, Kyo saw the girl from the booth waving at him to follow her out into the hallway. Grabbing the slightly confused Yuki, he pulled him into the hallway, where (having gotten the idea) Yuki pulled his wrist away.

"Um…" the girl said as soon as they caught up. "We really need to get out of here, so just follow me, okay?"

Yuki raised an eyebrow and Kyo considered the request.

"Please?" The girl gave the two a worried look. Yuki nodded, after a moment's deliberation.

Pleased, the girl ran down the hall, heading to the elevator with the two boys following her. As soon as everyone was on, she pressed the appropriate number on the panel and the elevator jerked upwards. The door dinged as soon as they reached the correct floor and the doors slid open, allowing them to get off.

Some people were staring at Yuki's appearance (the hair and all) slightly wondering how someone got a hair color such as that, others just ignored it, after all there has been worst walking along the hallways of the Facility.

"We need to go outside," the girl instructed. "There's a car waiting for us."

Kyo frowned as a thought hit him. "Who are you?"

The girl gave a startled look. "Er… Now's not the time, they'll be following us soon." Not giving another thought, she continued to the front entrance, where guards were all ready for them.

Yuki, having regained some of his strength, and Kyo ran ahead to clear a path for them. The girl ran through the cleared path and pushed the glass doors open. The sunlight hit her in the face and caused a momentary blindness as her eyes adjusted to the sudden change in light. Behind her, the two teens finished up with the guards and joined her.

Satisfied that they were following, she led them to a Jeep. A Jeep that looked very similar to-

"Mr. Hatsuharu?" The girl knocked on the window.

Kyo swore he could feel his jaw dropping in surprise. How'd the hell did they know each other? Shouts from behind forced him out of stupor as he got into the back of the vehicle. The girl joined Haru in the front and Kyo was forced to sit next to Yuki.

"Take a left and go down the street for two blocks and make a right," the girl instructed, breathless, no doubt, from the running she had to do. As soon as the car was put into drive, she gave a sigh of relief and leaned into the chair.

"Excuse me, miss?" Yuki gave the girl a questioning look as she brought her head around to look at him with her own questioning look. "But, how do you know Haru?"

"After he went to go get you," she gave nod towards Kyo, whom was allowing himself to relax into his half of the seat. "I went to talk to a few of my… ah… associates. Then, I saw Mr. Hatsuharu and since his hair looked as odd (she really did mean that in the nicest way possible) as his, I thought he would be with you and so I talked to him."

"Let me guess," Kyo muttered. "And then he talked to you, think that you couldn't possibly be the enemy. I mean, com'on you're wearing their uniform! How do we know you are trustworthy?" The cat folded his arms over his chest at add a challenge to the statement.

"I think what the idiot over there is saying is are you on their side, or what, miss?"

"I'm so rude," the girl mumbled. "First off, my name is Honda Tohru. I'm part of an underground rebel group. We're trying to get rid of the Facility so that people won't get hurt by them anymore."

"I'm Souma Yuki," the silver haired teen replied, a small smile gracing his features. "The idiot is Kyo, one of my distant cousins, and you've all ready met my other cousin, Hatsuharu."

"She still didn't explain why she's helping us," Kyo muttered, cursing just a tad.

"Have you heard about the Zodiac Project?" She asked in a conspiracy-like tone. "The Foundation has been making a big deal out of it for awhile now and we're trying to figure out why."

Kyo and Yuki gave each other a look, which was lost on Tohru. They were silently wondering if they should tell her or not, in the end, they decided that it was best that they don't say a thing. "No," they both replied.

"Which way do I turn now?" Haru asked. Tohru looked past the two head's in the back.

"We're not being followed," she muttered to herself. "Left and then turn into the alley between the hotel and the apartment." Haru nodded as he took in the directions, following them, surprisingly, to the "T."

The shade of the two buildings gave them enough cover so that they gave the slip to any possible 'suitors that they didn't know about. "Here," Hatsuharu said, giving Yuki a hat. "Hair's too noticeable. And, Kyo, you need to take off the lab coat."

Both did as they were told. Yuki forced loose strands to be tucked underneath the hat, getting slightly irritated whenever one fell out of its place. Kyo almost tore the coat as he pulled it off and threw it into the trunk.

Satisfied with their appearances and his own (having just put a wig over top his hair), Haru turned to the girl. "What now?" He asked in a "I'm bored beyond heck" tone.

"I'll lead you there, its not safe to talk about directions in areas like this, the walls have ears," Tohru explained as she poked her head out of the alley, checking both ways. Waving to the three, she told them to follow her.

The only thing they could do was oblige her orders, seeing as that they hardly knew anything about the city and all. "Just act causal, like you normally would," She whispered to everyone as they began their trek onto the streets of Old Tokyo. Acting normal, for those three, meant Haru would let himself loose and become laid back with hands in pocket, Kyo would slouch just a tad and put a glare on, and finally Yuki does whatever he normally does.

Tohru stopped at a vendor, getting homemade ice cream for everyone, saying that, "I've never had one before, and since you all look hungry, this is the perfect time to try."

They gave her a curious look, Kyo more then the other two; they hid their surprise by eating the sweet treat. When the family was still together and living on the estate, they had ice cream almost all of the time. It's amazing at what different lifestyles and hardships there are between people. They had lived in a secluded area and were pretty well off, and this girl must've been through a lot.

They walked in silence, eating their ice creams. When there was nothing left, except for the napkins, they'd throw them away until no one had a hand filled with anything.

Tohru stared at them until their eyes made contact with her own. She nodded her head in the direction of another alley. Understanding, they slipped into the said area. Pausing to make sure that no one was watching them from the entrance of the alley, Tohru pressed a button and a passage of darkness was revealed. Motioning, she had them enter first and pressed the button again, following before the wall closed on her.

The lights flickered on, lighting up the path to the compound.

Hatsuharu was all ready walking, not caring, where as the other two waited for her to catch up. "Where does this lead to, Miss Honda?" Yuki asked.

The girl blinked before smiling. "My home."

"Doesn't seem like much of a home," Kyo scoffed as he took in the slime growing on the walls.

"I'm sorry," Tohru replied.

Kyo gave her a look of mixed confusion and irritation. "Why the hell are you apologizing?"

"Yes," said Yuki, getting into the conversation. He gave the orange haired teen a condescending look. "Why are you apologizing to that idiot?"

Kyo put up a fist and got into an offensive stance. "You damn rat! One day I'll kick your sorry ass!" The statement was too late to take back, judging by the look of alarm on Yuki's face and Tohru's confused stare.

"Rat?" She murmured as she looked at the two boys. Confusion spread like wildfire on her face. "Are you-?"

"They have pet names for each other," Haru's voice replied from behind her as a hand was placed on her shoulder. "They're embarrassed to say it in public. However, when Kyo gets worked up, he'll accidentally call Yuki 'Rat.'"

The two boys had a shocked look on their faces, which was quickly replaced by anger and fury as Tohru gave an understanding smile and said, "Oh."

Haru gave a twisted smile as the two boys yelled obscenities at him.

It took several moments of Tohru, nervously, trying to get the two to calm down. Still muttering curses every few moments, they continued down the corridor until the brighter lights of the camp hit their eyes.

"This is my home," Tohru announced.

Behind her, a bunch of tents stood. People were running in and out of tunnels, children were running around, playing games that only kids could understand, while their mothers did various chores and errands. However, it was also very quiet, so much that you wouldn't be able to realize how many people there actually was.

Tohru was all ready heading towards the tents, so they had no choice but to follow her.

OOOO

Authoress's Notie:

This chapter is completely half-assed. I just wanted to get it over with and stuff. There are probably mistakes all over the place. At least I'm getting better at the various personalities of the FB peoples…

Yay! I'm so happy that I can finally make responses to reviews! That makes me incurably happy!

Is there anything I need to say for this chapter? Hm… I don't think so…

Questions? Comments? Complaints? Just wanna hire me as your lawyer? Just press the purple button and off you go…

The Can-Can group


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